Conflicts & War

Solemn New York ceremony marks 9/11 attacks 20 years later

New York, USA, Sep 11 (EFE).- The commemorations for the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York began Saturday with a solemn ceremony at the site of the Twin Towers.

It was attended by some of the relatives of the nearly 3,000 victims, as well as the President of the United States, Joe Biden, and former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.

On a sunny morning, as on September 11, 2001, the ceremony began with a parade of representatives of the emergency services carrying an American flag, after which the Young People’s Chorus of New York sang the national anthem.

After a moment of silence at 08.46 local time (12.46 GMT), when the first plane hit one of the towers, Mike Low, whose daughter Sarah was one of the flight attendants on board, gave a short speech, marking the beginning of family members reading of the names of the victims.

Alongside them, hundreds more crowded around the 9/11 memorial, many carrying red roses and American flags.

The ceremony, which saw singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen perform his song “I’ll See You in My Dreams,” paused for periods of silence to mark the moments three of the planes that were hijacked on 9/11 struck the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, and a fourth went down in Pennsylvania.

The event, which was also attended by former US First Ladies Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama, also recalled the moments when the Twin Towers fell in New York.

Law enforcement agencies deployed significant security measures, with thousands of agents and bomb detection units deployed across the city, while the entrances to the subway stations near Ground Zero were manned by armed police officers.EFE

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